I appreciated the long, informative abstract here.
And this initial phrase “Meetings are brackets in ongoing social processes” reminds me of something I heard from some of the earliest participatory meeting pioneers I know - the folks at the Institute of Cultural Affairs. Though I’ve not got their wording down, it’s something like “change is always associated with events” … and meetings are events, I’d say.
I’m thinking that it’s the same kind of “freeing dynamics” … which is to say stepping outside of one context into a “time out” where change is expected and encouraged. Or something …
“Does it mean that meeting actions and interactions are independent from the meeting’s environment?”
I wonder how this all plays out in the context of meetings held in OST (open space technology). Would this be an example of what the authors call “removing the brackets”? OST is the format I return to over and over again as it’s the only method I know that fully invites passion and responsibility of any and all participants. The big work is done in the invitation phase, but after that it’s open to whatever anyone is wanting to express, and the structure is provided for when, where, and how the discussion can be hosted and documented and then openly shared. It’s like an open-weave meta-meeting. (my unacademic wording)